The legend of Ron Dixon — who will be next Giants-Eagles hero?

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There is a cinematic flair to Ron Dixon’s story. He tells it well enough that you’re surprised Hollywood hasn’t told it first.

In the late 1990s, too much of Dixon’s time was spent at a gas station near his Wildwood, Fla., home. He already had flunked out of several colleges, never feeling the need to go to class. Traditional education was not for him, he had decided: He wasn’t getting anything out of the class, so why go?

He knew he was talented. Some of the players he had shared a football field with — longtime NFL running back Duce Staley and nose tackle Jason Ferguson were Itawamba (Miss.) Community College teammates — were going places, and he could run with any of them. But without a college platform, no one could see the ability that was being wasted in a gas-station bathroom.

That’s where Dixon worked in 1998, a maintenance gig that could pay some bills about two years after he last stepped on a college football field. The way he remembers it, on this day he was behind the cash register, but his manager told him the bathroom needed to be cleaned. He grabbed the cleaning supplies and walked into the grimiest scene he could imagine.

Ron Dixon of the New York Giants during the Giants 23-9 victory over the Washington Redskins at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. — A third-round pick in the 2000 draft, Ron Dixon became the Giants’ primary kick returner before a knee injury ended his career after three seasons.

“I opened the stall and — excuse my language — some sucker s–tted all over the stall. Not the toilet — the stall. How’d he do that?” Dixon said over the phone on Wednesday. “I thought, ‘If I’m cleaning this up, I’ll be cleaning this s–t up for the rest of my life.’ I’m out of here.”

He left the mess, left the job, left one life and soon entered another — and then another. Two years later, Dixon became one of the unlikeliest Giants cult heroes, a playoff record-holder whose fame exploded in a Divisional round playoff battle against the Eagles — the same Eagles the Giants will try to take down Saturday night. These are the matchups, when millions upon millions are watching, that elevate a nobody into a somebody, that transform stories into legends.

The last time the Giants beat the Eagles in the playoffs, Dixon etched his way into Giants fans’ memories. He took the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, kick-starting a ride that would end in the Super Bowl (in which he also returned a kickoff to the house, still the owner of the NFL record for kickoff returns for a touchdown in a single postseason).

Ron Dixon #86 of the New York Giants races past Matt Stover #3 of the Baltimore Raves for a 97 yard touchdown during Super Bowl XXXV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. — Ron Dixon’s 97-yard kickoff return in the third quarter proved to be the only points the Giants would score against the Ravens in Super Bowl 35.

“I did all that s–t,” Dixon said from Winter Garden, Fla., “because somebody s–tted all over a stall.”

Dixon was and is a character, declining to reveal much about his life over the past two decades and what he has been up to.

“What I’m doing,” he said, “is going to make you forget that I played football.” He did mention a book — “From the Toilet Bowl to the Super Bowl” — is in the works. He has been a public speaker and works with World Sports Alumni, an organization that says it connects “all athletes from all sports together under one umbrella.”

Few have been less likely to crack the NFL, and few have enjoyed a more fascinating three-season NFL career. After leaving the gas station, Dixon said he returned home to find his mother on the phone with tiny Lambuth University, an NAIA (Division II) school in Tennessee. He had no more NCAA eligibility, so he agreed to suit up for a team that he says only played during the day because its field had no lights.

One season with 89 catches and 19 touchdowns later, the same central Florida kid who could not bring himself to scrub one more stall was a third-round pick of the Giants in 2000, sharing a draft class with Ron Dayne.

Ron Dixon after his NFL career. — Ron Dixon says he doesn’t spend any time watching football now that his playing days are behind him.
*Courtesy of Ron Dixon*

For Dixon, football classrooms presented the same problem as college classrooms. He didn’t and doesn’t love football, and says he does not watch the game. He missed meetings, had a problem waking up on time and could get on the wrong side of Jim Fassel.

But he had a tremendous ability to run and a confidence that matched his talent. He became a lightly used deep threat as a receiver, but established himself as the Giants’ kick returner, a role in which his speed could change games. Once the playoffs began after the 2000 season, it changed a game and his legacy.

“I walked out, and I just remember the energy, the excitement,” Dixon said about the Jan. 7, 2001, playoff opener at Giants Stadium, where white towels waved everywhere you looked. “Seemed like you could just squeeze the juice out of the air.”

Where others might have butterflies, Dixon found belief. He remembers turning prophetic to a few teammates in the locker room.